Business Owners carry the ROI
Business Owners are key ART stakeholders with the primary business and technical responsibility for return on investment, governance and compliance. They participate in PI Planning and assign business value to the train's PI Objectives.
Why it is like this
A train that sets its own priorities and grades its own outcomes has no external check. Naming a small group who are accountable for the money and must turn up to the planning event is the mechanism that provides one.
Not to be confused with
A steering committee, or an escalation path. Business Owners are expected to be present — assigning business value face to face during PI Planning is the point, and a train whose Business Owners send apologies has lost the control, not just a meeting.
In practice
Absent Business Owners is the quietest failure mode in SAFe: everything still runs, and nothing is being governed.
Source: SAFe Glossary (Scaled Agile, Inc.) — Business Owners. Read on .
SAFe® and Scaled Agile Framework® are registered trade marks of Scaled Agile, Inc. ytyk.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by or licensed by Scaled Agile, Inc. These cards are independent commentary written in our own words; no SAFe text, graphic or Big Picture is reproduced here.
Odd one out Check yourself
Three of these are Business Owner responsibilities. Which one is not?
Show the answer
Facilitating ART events and coaching the teams
That is the Release Train Engineer. Business Owners answer for the money; the RTE runs the cadence.